A phenomenographic study of critical thinking: conceptualisation and operationalisation in assessment practices.

D'Northwood, G.

Abstract

Higher Education students are ultimately differentiated by summative assessment, the results having ramifications for seeking employment or access to higher level education programmes. Yet assessment has long been a challenging issue (Yorke, 2010). Professional judgements along the lines of “I know a 2:1 when I see it” (Ecclestone, 2001 refers) are hard to justify (Grainger, Purnell and Zipf, 2008) in the context of assessment practices located within an agenda of institutional accountability (Bloxham, 2009) underpinned
by QA frameworks requiring evidence of justifiable assessment decisions (Grainger, Purnell and Zipf, 2008; Bloxham, Boyd and Orr, 2011).
Evidence of critical thinking is generally required for higher-level attainment, yet conceptually this is subject to wide interpretation (Lok et al., 2016), with little or no academic consensus on its specification (Moore, 2013). We know that the notion of criticality is important – it is often referred to in documentation (learning outcomes, grading descriptors, assessments, etc.) – but what exactly is it, how is it understood and how is it operationalised through assessment practices? There is thus a need for determining how academics conceptualise critical thinking, how it is actually understood (Moore, 2013) and how it is operationalised
through assessment practices.
This presentation is drawn from the author’s doctoral research in pursuance of a part-time Ed.D, in which a phenomenographic approach is being taken to develop a description of the qualitatively different ways in which higher education tutors conceive of critical thinking and how this affects assessment practices.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) Newer and Early Career Researchers Conference 5th December 2017
• Start Date: Dec 5, 2017
• End Date: Dec 5, 2017
• Deposit Date: May 23, 2018
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1145515
• Publisher URL: https://srhe.ac.uk/arc/conference2017/downloads/SRHE-NR-Conference-Programme-Abstracts.pdf